The National tribune., 1887-10-13
PENSION LAWS,
Some Valuable Hints to Those Who
Expect Justice.

~
EDITOR NATIONAL TRIBUNE: Some years
of experience in the Pension Office and in
offices of pension attorneys enable me to suggest
some practical hints to claimants, which, if fol-
| lowed, cannot overcome the absence of a legal
| requirement. but will seldom fail of invoking
favorable judicial discretion in the adj udication
! of claims. The administration of the pension
| laws begets-
l. A knowledge OF, and respect for, the SOW
ereignty of Federal statute, which, in ante
belum days, fell powerless in the center of the
| Potomac.
2. The great area of disseminating this
knowledge, incidentally stimulating inquiry
into the principles of law and of evidence.
3. The special education of distinguishing
| fact from sentiment, relevancy from irrele-
vancy, hearsay from positive evidence.
4. The elevation of the standard of medicine
and surgery, encouraging neurology and pa
| thology, with decent respect for an educated
diagnosis.
5. Their votaries, lay and medical, may,
without brag be considered as among the high
est average of practical intelligence in the
world, from the legislator to the village squire,
and from a moral point of view their disap-
pointments and necessarily vexatious delays
incucate patience and fortitude, and to the
youthful bosom imparts keen sense of native
patriotism, while the foreign cynic must stand
appalled, in the presence Of Republican honor
and honesty. Truly the world has never seen
the like.
There is not q male OF female connected with
this great Department of accumulated intelli-
gence within or without the Government who
is not in some degree y public teacher, and all
are uniformly taught leniency and considerable
to human infirmities in correspondence, and to
be respectful in their instructions and replies,
infractiOns of the rule being usually met by
proper official rebuke, as each letter is critically
.a1 hsafo a.
tion.
OFFICIAL CORRESPONDENCE.
The daily correspondence of the Pension
Office is in volume and weight enormous, re-
quiring an entire division of clerks to receive,
control and distribute it among the various
files of the adjudicating divisions, and not al
ways capable OF accomplishing this on the day
Of arrival, nor can the outgoing mail reach the
postofHce within couple of days from date,
which, with every possible facility Of dispatch,
seems unavoidable.
The Commissioner of Pensions occupying
the most trying and unenviable public office in
this or in any other country, has, during his
official hours of business, scarcely an opportu-
nifty to read his own personal mail, not to speak
of the numerous letters and petitions of SYM
pathy addressed to him personally by claim
ants. However, each Examining Clerk repre-
sents officially the Commissioner in applying
such letters. petitions and pieces of evidence to
the respective claims and the official action of
the latter becomes the action of the Commits
siOner and of the Government. By means of
about 900 of these of all grades-laborers
copyists, Legal and Medical Examiners-the
entire business OF the Office Is conducted and
each is a working bee in a hive where no idle
bread is eaten, adverse criticism to the con-
trary notwithstanding.
A certain amount of work is expected from
each, hence the anxiety to make a good
monthly record and stand in the line of pro-
motion. The claimants evidence and eorre-
spondence is in the keeping of the Examiner
having charge of his claim, and upon whom ne
should study to make healthy. if not pleas
ing impression. The universal principle that
KINDNESS BEGETs KINDNESS,
politeDess begets its reciprocal, should be OBJ
served, and this can be done through brief,
pointed and pleasant correspondence. These
Examiners, as all judicial and quasi judicial
officers possess large discretionary powers in
adjudicating claims. They, as members of the
human family, have their likes aud dislikes,
their prejudices, spleens and other common in
firmities, and will, through animal or mental
magnetism, either take kindly to the claimant
or doggedly overlook and set him aside in the
matter of rapid dispatch, and this contrary to
tire standing rule of equal attention to all in
turn.
He cannot tell the claimant what he thinks
of his provoking aud at times scurrilous letter,
but he will punish him in time and once in
six months send a meaningless blank with
very sparing or no instructions of how to pro-
coed and fill up the same; or. if in answer TO q
single simple legal requirement the claimant
not only does not reply but sends an essay of
10 or II pages of foolscap, upon some dog-fght
or local cyclone, or the state of the crops writ
ten in scrawl that does violence to the eye
and mental concentration, the Examiner Is
wasting time. falling behind his record, and
with sore eyes jackets the correspondence,
marking it "chaff," never 10 see the light of
day again, and the claimant failing in the re-
quired testimony he loses his turn of adjudica-
ton, and is again assigned to the dungeon Of
files.
All are not expected to be book-learned, but
those who invoke sympathy should give SYM
pathy, and whether public servant or private
agent, each possess private rights with which
they never part, and which should command
our personal respect. Claimants would, there
fore, do we'll to observe the following: Write
plainly, respect the sight Of others, and confne
your correspondence to half sheet of ordinary
note paper. If you cannot write plain, have
some member Of the family or friend
DO so FOR YOU.
Your anger or constitutional infirmities, being
private property, should never be hawked about
in business correspondence.
Nothing moro engages the attention than
your wants. plainly and briefly expressed.
Don't argue where you cannst convince. Be-
ware of the itch for writing, and do not charge
the Government with ingratitude, the Com
missioner with injustice, or society with
universal depravity; endear yourself and
your cause to every one, no matter how
humble, with whom you or it may come
in contact, and rest assured that you will re-
ceive all the justice which the law allows with
a reasonable discretion thrown on the knotty
points of your claim. What is true of the
Pension Office is not and cannot be tolerated in
leading pension agencies here, for it is much
easier Of rapid detection, yet in the politeness
those employed on such work, the rule of brew
ity and point lightens the labor and rebounds
to the credit of the claimant.
THE PROOF.
1t is astonishing what Indifference claimants
manifest in their own interests in the matter
of furnishing proof. They should remember,
in spite of idle gossip, that there is no royal
| road to the pension rolls, and that the mount
ain does not go to Mahomet, but rather the
latter must come to the mountain, hence the
evidence will not seek the claimant; he must
and should seek it. Thousands of claims
pending for years, and which, if completed,
woald carry arrearages are through indiffer-
ence. poverty, and want of some personal aid,
permitted to remain suspended. The place
of organization Is likely to be the place
of return, as chickens come home to roOst,"
and is the place. in and around, to seek this
proof Claimants not blessed with q good
memory, or the facility Of writing should make
nm afIoFL In on in DerSon and uSa everv nsaana